Ilex should ‘advertise locally’

Jobs at Derry’s urban regeneration company Ilex should be advertised in the city, a Sinn Féin councillor has said.

Maeve McLaughlin says it is “regrettable” that the company have chosen to advertise three vacancies in a national paper, and on an online recruitment site, but not in any local publications.

The positions - Programme Manger, salaried at £41,000, Strategy and Regeneration Manager, which pays in excess of £30,000 and the post of Communications Executive, with a salary of more than £25,000 - were first advertised last week.

The Strategy Manager post is advertised on a temporary basis, while the communications job will cover maternity leave.

A spokeswoman for Ilex says a decision not to advertise locally was based on the “seniority” of the positions.

“The nature and level of the jobs is such that we had to put them out on a NI wide basis.

“If we run an advertisement we have to make sure that we hit the target market.

“The seniority of the positions is such that we simply couldn’t restrict the ads to the Derry market.”

But colr. McLaughlin says it is important local people with the required skill set apply.

“While I can understand the spending constraints that government departments have to operate under it is regrettable that ILEX job vacancies will not be advertised in local publications.

“Although the designated regional publications that carry all Departmental job vacancies are available in Derry and the north west region for which ILEX is tasked with the delivering regeneration which should mean jobs as well as infrastructure, I believe that ILEX should consider placing adverts in the local media.

“I would also like to point out my understanding that the vacancies at ILEX will also be advertised on the ILEX website and I would encourage anyone locally with the required qualifications to apply for any positions that may become vacant. I believe that the trend will be towards a concentration on digital advertising in the future with more publications becoming available digitally.”